Great Generals

[Kuciwalker]

I'm pretty sure when you do the math, Leadership isn't worth it.

[ben04]

I have also won battles with 1% chance of winning. The reason why most people don't remember such battles is that they don't attack with such odds.

1 out of 100 isn't nothing considering that they are way over 100 battles a game. For my taste that's too much for a warlord. Considering that most battle will rather be around 95% they just don't fight long enough to pay of.

[Kuciwalker]

btw, if you try to keep your Warlord alive it'll only be fighting 1xp battles, which get no bonus from Leadership.

[Thedrin]

Leadership gives +100% experience since the last patch, not +50%, so the leadership-promoted Warlord unit should be getting 2XP from 1XP fights.

[ben04]

Also another thing is that units even when fighting at high chances often get seriously wounded and need to rest. This also applies to warlord units, although their promotions will get them faster fit again, a stack of 10+ exp guys doesn't suffer from this at all. The wounded ones will simply stay behind, or get promoted as new promotions don't yet cost that many exp as with a warlord, and the stack can roll forward.

Perhaps warlords are more important on smaller maps as you don't produce that many units on such maps. I don't often play such maps so I don't know.

[eris]

Originally posted by Kuciwalker
btw, if you try to keep your Warlord alive it'll only be fighting 1xp battles, which get no bonus from Leadership.

I believe that the 2.08 patch to Warlords changed Leadership from +50% to +100% just to address that issue. Therefore, a 1 xp battle gets you 2.0 xp instead of 1.5 xp rounded down to 1.0 xp. I could be wrong, but my one very nasty gunship seems to be getting 2 xp per battle. (until it dies against all reason and mathematical odds) (again)

[zeace]

I like to put an academy and a few instructors in my military city. During peace this builds defenders and a counter-attack force. During war, this city builds all non-siege units, and my other cities build nothing but siege units. The result is a bunch of weak catapults/trebs that I don't feel bad sacrificing against cities, and an elite group of soldiers who can easily mop up after the 'pults are done.

If you get HE, an academy and a bunch of instructors in a hammer intensive city you have a constant stream of very powerful units to be the backbone of your army.

[popejubal]

I like the Medic I, II, III unit as well. I particularly like dropping that on a mounted unit and giving him the +1 movement in addition. That way, I can say, "oh noes! I need a medic in that other stack!" and actually get the medic over there on the double.

3 movement on a Medic 3 unit is very handy. That unit also gets to pillage fairly often since the extra movement (often 2 extra movement) is usually unused. In my last game, I had a Keshik with 3 movement, flanking, sentry and Medic 3 (he had been promoted more than a few times before having the Great General dropped on him). That was a very handy unit to have hanging around my stack as it wandered through enemy territory. With the Keshik bonus of no movement penalties, I didn't even bother to upgrade him until I discovered Helicopters.

[Kuciwalker]

Originally posted by Thedrin
Leadership gives +100% experience since the last patch, not +50%, so the leadership-promoted Warlord unit should be getting 2XP from 1XP fights.

Ah. That's much more valuable.

[Dominae]

No love for Morale? The AI (and many human players) doesn't cope very well with that one...

If I have War Elephants, I'll use the Combat line exclusively: it doesn't take too long for your super-elephant to have odds against its own counter (Spearmen), so it basically becomes an "invicible" unit (when at full health).

Leadership I'll typically only put on fastmovers. It's difficult to make the most out of Leadership when fighting same-tech units, because after most fights your general has to stop and heal. In warfare I tend to use enough troops that I can keep attacking even when half my forces are recovering from previous battles, so I don't really depend on my generals to fight that much more than regular units - I depend on them to have 99% odds when I need them. With Leadership on a fastmover you can use the unit to mop up damaged troops, and thus the general sees many more battles.

The key to the Medic line is to attach the general to a poor, fastmover unit (like a Chariot) and never upgrade it. A Medic 1-3 plus Sentry Chariot is still useful in the Modern era.

[Krill]

medic 3 scouts are best, because it takes collateral, is knocked down to 0.5 strength, and will never defend. And is cheaper, but oh well...

Morale on a fast mover can be a *****...especially when you are one unit short of taking a city and need a 3 move unit to kill the city (seems to happen at least once in every 12 MP games I play). Morale on a medic 3 is good for reasons posted above, but also for moving between cities when you are getting attacked in multiple locations. And 3 move commandos are nasty in MP.

[CapTVK]

On the subject of GG, do you any of you guys rely on use of specific wonders like the Great Wall? It seems essential to have that particular type of wonder at hand for great generals.

As for promotions: leadership, and medic plus some combat related promotions to the side when it comes down to field action. Needless to say my great generals do not die in bed, although i tend to be careful...

For naval units, leadership, withdrawal and sometimes extra movement My naval GG´s are always escorted! (it takes a bit of effort to promote a GG naval unit but when it does you´ll have your flagship(s) dominating the seas). Plus the free upgrades are a lot more useful when it comes to naval units. Grunts are ten-a-penny but an experienced battleship is hard to find.

[Solomwi]

I typically don't do enough fighting inside my borders to make the Great Wall worthwhile. If I were more of a builder, more likely to be reacting to an attack than springing one, I could see it working well, though.

I've toyed with the idea of using a GG on a ship, but never been able to bring myself to do it.

[popejubal]

Originally posted by Solomwi
I typically don't do enough fighting inside my borders to make the Great Wall worthwhile. If I were more of a builder, more likely to be reacting to an attack than springing one, I could see it working well, though.

I've toyed with the idea of using a GG on a ship, but never been able to bring myself to do it.

I dropped a Great General on a Transport ship once.

Medic III and Navigation II. It was kind of neat transporting a big stack of Marines in that ship, but I think it was overkill. If the Red Cross is in a coastal city, the Medic transports are wonderful, but more than Medic II seems unnecessary since it's easy to retreat to neutral tiles. I'd prefer to spend the Great General on +2 XP from my Heroic Epic city or on a single super-tank or super-maceman (or medic horse)

[trev]

Instructors in my capital generally with an academy and HE, never yet used them as a warlord, but some games at epic speed using beauracracy I have had the capital building a tank most turns with level 17 experience, the city also has settled GE's and GP's etc to assist production, win wars easily with such a city